Gordon Brown's Beyond The Crash

Having presided over the largest financial crisis to afflict Britain since the 1930s, Gordon Brown now has the hubris to try and convince us that he singlehandedly spearheaded the cure. His new book sheds light on the events that led to financial meltdown and the reactions of Brown and his fellow leaders as they tried to avert a worse crisis.

It also offers the former prime minister's take on how to regain fiscal stability.

He says: "I wanted to explain how we got here, but more importantly to offer some recommendations as to how the next stage of globalisation can be managed so that the economy works for people and not the other way around."

And yet, after 10 years as chancellor, Brown admits he knew little of the banks' trading, lending and borrowing environment. Iron Chancellor? Ironic more like. Surely it was his job to know?

Brown deserves some credit for making his first post-office book a treatise on his latter-day track record, rather than his entire career. With prose as pompous and plodding as this, we were lucky to escape his autobiography.